Supply Chain Intern Review

I massively enjoyed my Internship. The work wasn't all exciting but once I spent more time in the company and they knew me better I was given higher level project work which I thoroughly enjoyed. The people I worked with were fantastic too, I was surprised how much fun my colleagues were as I was expecting a boring working environment which this certainly wasn't.

I felt massively valued by my colleagues. I do feel that this was a direct response to the work I put in and that people valued me because I was working hard and doing well. I was given a lot of responsibility to be independent in my work which helped me feel trusted and valued.

I had two managers during my time with L'Oréal and both were massively supportive and approachable. I could always go and speak to them for a quick catch up rather than having to schedule time in their diaries all the time which worked really well for me as I preferred the flexibility that they both showed.

I was incredibly busy. Lots of people around L'Oréal are very busy and work very hard. I feel that I was so busy because I was taking on extra work and different projects which really added to my understanding of the business and were very worthwhile getting involved with but, if you are not looking to go over and above you are unlikely to succeed in L'Oréal and they may not be the company for you. I understand that a large workload is not for everyone but I feel that being effective with managing time is a key skill that I will take from my internship.

I was given lots of responsibility. I was allowed to do so much with my time and plan things independently. I was able to plan meetings and calls with key stakeholders from around the business to help with my projects. I was allowed to plan site visits to spend time with people from across the company with full support from management. I was allowed to work flexibly and manage my own time. Lots of this came after spending some time in the company and building up my reputation and building trust from management in the work I was doing but once you are a trusted and reliable member of the team you are given the responsibility to be self sufficient if that's what you want.

Beyond time management and the work ethic required to have a full time job there is not a lot from the internship that will directly help on my course, but I did expect that when I took the role so it isn't a missive surprise. Having said this I think time management and work ethic will really help me succeed in final year.

Everyone was nice. I worked in a couple of different offices and they were all relatively similar. You will always get office politics to an extent but I was nice to everyone and everyone was nice to me in return so I didn't have any problems with integrating into the teams and getting along well with people.

L'Oréal have a lot of interns so it is something they are very used to. One thing I really didn't like is that I'd never met my manager before I started my role and you cannot have a missive influence over the role you go into. You apply for a sector and you are placed in a role that takes into account location but not a lot else.

We received quite a lot of training in the early days so that we understand all the rules and do's and don't within L'Oréal. There were lots of other opportunities for training as we had the same options as normal employees to take part in general training initiatives. I feel that this sort of thing goes with the territory of being at a big company and there are lots of initiatives running and there is budget to get people involved. In terms of job specific training it was largely a case of learning on the job but in terms of personal development I feel the opportunities I was given were an invaluable part of my personal development.

I have been offered to continue working here over summer and am currently in the process of applying for the grad scheme. I think I would like to stay with L'Oréal for now but I don't see my long term future with the company as I feel the opportunities available are not necessarily what I would be looking for.

No. I was working at a distribution centre with one other intern. We got on well but there was no real opportunity to do any intern socials. This doesn't bother me at all but if you're looking for somewhere with a big intern social scene then a distribution centre would not be for you. There were a couple of colleagues I socialised with outside of work but I wouldn't describe that as much of a social scene.